What Diamonds Are
by ohlookrandom
Summary: People often saw diamonds as beautiful and symbols of wealth; he figured that just like him, diamonds were simply pieces of rock that became the way they were after intense pressure. Oneshot.


I will give you a virtual cookie if you can guess who this girl is. Heh. :D

On another note, I would love to thank everyone who added me to their favorite author's list and also added my stories to their favorites list! I thoroughly appreciate you guys, more than you know. YA MAKE ME FEEL LOOOOVEEED.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except my dog. And even then I don't own a dog.

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Words, words, words. Diamond squeezed his eyes shut and wished that he could do the same for his ears- but that would be rude, of course, if he just _sat _there in the church pew and pretended like he wasn't engaging in the ceremony.

He didn't want to engage in the ceremony. In fact he rather wished it was over.

More words floated down from the altar, and Diamond wished it would all go away, those words of _do you take this woman _and _I do_. It didn't, and he reluctantly opened his eyes.

He'd developed an odd sense of coping with life, thinking that words didn't mean anything. If a random girl complimented him on how good he looked in that suit, he accepted it. He didn't see it as flirting. It was a coping mechanism; Diamond found that he could keep out the hurt, keep the nonexistent, fragile sense of trust going. It was how he often kept the ever-present smile on his face. Over the last nineteen years, he'd worked hard at extracting any possible emotion behind spoken phrases, twisting them so that they became bland words, meaning nothing to him. Simple, empty words- statements. Nobody, he reasoned in front of his mirror, meant anything when they spoke.

He could never do it well with her, though. When she spoke his name, he found it hard to trust that she didn't sincerely mean what she said. She said hello, and Diamond found it difficult to believe that she was merely greeting him out of formality- despite his best efforts he felt that she was happy to see him, and he her. He wrung out the words as well as he could, but there was always some sort of emotion left behind. He didn't know if it was real, or if he was imagining it, but he believed her- trusted her. She no longer spoke statements, like Pearl or Ruby or Sapphire did. He saw her as real, as emotionally charged, as raw, though she covered it with her innocent and naïve demeanor- he trusted her with his heart somehow and found double meaning behind her words. His true emotions often surfaced when he spoke to her, revealing secrets and truths he never knew about her- about _himself_.

Diamond tried to ignore it at first. Soon, he tried to imagine her words as weightless glass, weighing down and then shattering into pieces like everything else. He tried to believe that when she said goodbye to Pearl first, it meant nothing more than a simple word of farewell. _He's just standing closer, so she said goodbye to him before she did me_, he reasoned. He plastered on a smile, the smile everyone was used to seeing- she said quietly, "Goodbye, Dia," and Diamond sensed the raw emotional undercurrent- pain? Sadness? - slicing through it, like it did with everything else that she said.

He smiled as he hugged her goodbye. "See you," he said cheerily, trying to pretend that he didn't feel a sudden flare of jealousy at her choice of first farewell. He hid it extraordinarily well, but he supposed that he didn't hide the sad tone as well as he thought he had. "No extra meaning, no extra weight," he tried to convince himself later in the comfort of his room, shrugging his shoulders as he attempted to dismiss everything.

Words, words, words.

She left to pursue other career opportunities; he stayed back and developed a solid comedy routine with Pearl. She rose to top ranks in her Coordinator career; he became known as the funnyman of the famous comedy duo. And when she returned, Diamond's practical sense of reality saw that she had changed. She became unemotional, stoic. Her temperament, although always calm and collected, became cold. Pearl mentioned it one night in passing, wondering what had changed; Diamond reflected that they'd all grown up, and she had become just like him.

He didn't like it.

She was the only one who had ever made him feel like there was meaning to life, and now that was gone. She floated through Sinnoh, distant and vague; Diamond tried to empty the emotions from her words and found to his dismay that he could. There was no more meaning there. She had changed, and he knew it. So he subsided into silence, putting on a cheerful smile again, and again, and again.

She had taught him what a real smile was; after she changed, he forgot.

So that was how he found himself one year later, sitting in a church pew watching the girl he had admired and perhaps loved stand on a stage and recite her wedding vows to a stranger whom she barely knew. A stranger she claimed she loved.

He doubted she remembered what love was anymore. It was the one lesson he tried to hold on to.

"Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

Words, words, words.

The evening found everyone in the sprawling patio, dancing and sipping champagne. He walked up to the newly wedded bride and groom, smiling so hard his cheeks hurt. "Congratulations," he said happily- inside he thought _Why? _"You two look amazing. I'm sure your life will be a happy one!"

She smiled at him, and Diamond saw it- the beginnings of a trapped soul like himself. "Thank you," she says in that sweet tone of hers. "I'm sorry you didn't know till the last minute, though."

They locked eyes and Diamond looked away first. "It's okay," he said as brightly as he could. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

Words, words, words.

He was a diamond, hard as a rock, shimmering brightly. People often saw diamonds as beautiful and symbols of wealth; he figured that just like him, diamonds were simply pieces of rock that became the way they were after intense pressure. It was his job to be cheerful for the sake of everyone else; he did it so well nobody saw the emotionless stone heart underneath. So Diamond walked away, vowing that he had never loved her, she had never loved him, and what they had had was a grand illusion- a relationship full of statements and sentences punctuated by periods and not commas.

Words, words, words.

..

_Half of my heart's got a real good imagination  
Half of my heart's got you  
Half of my heart's got a right mind to tell you  
That half of my heart won't do_

_Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring  
And half of my heart is the part of a man who's never truly loved anything_

_

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Ah, poor Diamond. Shouldn't take a genius to figure out which girl I'm talking about- come to think of it the situation outlined here is very similar to plot ideas I had way back when… oh well. Do review to let me know if this story thoroughly confused you- at some points I literally stepped back and went, "WHAT AM I HIGH ON?"

..But that's just me. Do let me know what you think, _por favor! _:D You guys are awh-sum.

P.S. The song lyrics in italics are from John Mayer's 'Half of my Heart'


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